Monday, October 27, 2014

Brunch at Locanda Verde

Locanda Verde is one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. After visiting several times and posting about it last year, today's brunch made me want to talk about the restaurant again. It's that good.

The sheep's milk ricotta and fire-roasted garlic chicken are amazing, but definitely consider visiting for brunch (and getting the pancakes!) as well. Prices are a little high (most brunch dishes run between $17 to $24), but I believe there's pretty good value. I should probably admit that I do tend to love hotels and hotel restaurants though (namely Cafe Gitane in the West Village, Cafe Too at Island Shangri-La Hong Kong, and Next2 Cafe at Shangri-La Bangkok.

Locanda Verde accepts reservations, but since it was a last minute decision to drop by, we did have to wait around half an hour for a table of two (arrived at around 10:30am).

The heated little waiting area. A much-needed shelter from the wind today. Loved the fall decorations.

A section of the bright dining room

Complimentary olive foccacia

If only there were more green olives in this bread! So good.

Sheep's milk ricotta with truffle honey and burnt orange toast, $15

The most sublime ricotta ever. Fluffy, lightly salted, sweet, and topped with the herbs. Amazing.

Lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry and meyer lemon curd, $17

These pancakes. OMG. They are as superb as the ones at Five Points (which sadly just renovated and re-opened as an Italian restaurant!), light, slightly grainy in texture, with blueberry flavors as strong as the lemon ones.

Hazelnut-crusted French toast with citrus and mint, $18

A pretty French toast dish that was decent, but not spectacular. The citrus was a nice complement to the sweetness though.

Bloody mary della casa with Italian hot peppers, mortadella, $14

The only time going early to brunch works against you, is if you're trying to order an alcoholic beverage before noon on a Sunday! Completely forgot about this NY State law, so we ended up ordering one drink after finishing up with our food at noon.

This bloody mary had the right spiciness to it, but was otherwise unimpressive. It was too thick and tasted like pure tomato juice.